Zirconium boride is an artificial or which is rarely found in the nature. ZrB2 is popular in the hard material industry because it has a high melting point, excellent mechanical properties and chemical stability. There are two known methods to synthesize ZrB2. The first involves direct reaction between Zr and B, and the second is by reduction of the metal halogen. However, these two methods are known to be unsuitable for mass production. SHS(Self-propagating High-temperature Synthesis) is an efficient and economic method for synthesizing hard materials because it uses exothermic reactions. In this study, ZrB2 was successfully synthesized by subjecting ZrO2, Mg and B2O3 to SHS. Because of the high combustion temperature and rapid combustion, in conjunction with the stoichiometric ratio of ZrO2, Mg and B2O3; single phase ZrB2 was not synthesized. In order to solve the temperature problem, Mg and NaCl additives were investigated as diluents. From the experiments it was found that both diluents effectively stabilized the reaction and combustion regime. The final product, made under optimum conditions, was single-phase ZrB2 of 0.1-0.9μm particle size.

• 김진성(Department of Nano Advanced Material Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Korea) | Kim, Jinsung
• 원창환(Rapidly Solidified Materials Research Center(RASOM), Daejeon 305-764, Korea) | Won, Changwhan
• Hayk Nersisyan(Rapidly Solidified Materials Research Center(RASOM), Daejeon 305-764, Korea)